Real estate-focused metaverse Upland has been very active lately with a host of notable announcements for its community before and during their Genesis LIVE yearly event held in Las Vegas last week, among which included the full release of a new island, a partnership with The Sandbox, who recently raised $20 million at a $1 billion valuation cap, and more.

Partnership Details

Near the end of last month, the two sides announced that they are partnering with the goal of encouraging both communities to create and participate in each of the two metaverses. As a result of this announcement, Upland is setting up an HQ on 6x6 LAND in the voxel-based gaming world, while The Sandbox is getting an exclusive neighborhood in one of the cities in Upland. LAND owners will be able to participate in an exclusive drop by The Sandbox consisting of properties from its neighborhood in Upland. The Upland community on the other hand will have a chance of winning $SAND tokens and exclusive NFTs by doing various tasks in the The Sandbox.

The COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox, Sebastien Borget, said the following in a press release:

“These are two of the strongest communities in Web3 gaming coming together to offer new ways for people around the world to build, create, and connect. Our partnership signifies another step towards revolutionizing digital interaction, opening up access for creators and players to connect in new, immersive ways where interoperability drives cross-pollination of creation and innovation between different ecosystems.”

Next to all the initiatives mentioned, the collaboration is being celebrated with an upcoming joint design competition where creators can submit voxel-styled structures they’d like to see built only in The Sandbox neighborhood in Upland. Participants can also submit designs for Upland’s headquarters in The Sandbox metaverse.

Upland’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Dirk Lueth, added:

“This is the first collaboration of its kind in Web3, where two original platforms work together to enrich the experience for both communities. This is an exciting level-up for our vision of the Open Metaverse, where players and assets move across platforms for an elevated, immersive web experience.”

Bermuda - Full Island Release

Following the early April Fools offering, the unique city of Bermuda has now been fully released, completely opening all of the properties that were remaining on the island. All neighborhoods were released on Friday, June 7th at 10 AM PT, and there will be no more new openings for this special city in the future.

A total of 16,500 properties have opened on this island, with no future expansions planned for this area inspired by the Bermuda Triangle. It includes an airport, 13 landmarks, 10 collections, 9 neighborhoods and around 10% of FSA properties. There is no train terminal, and no plans for future expansions. The official treasure hunt tier is set to 4, while the average price, according to the official article, is 62,908 UPX, while the minimum is 1558 UPX and the maximum is 1,536,000 UPX.

This launch introduces unique structures, including 5 new residential designs and 2 factory options to help Bermuda property holders build a distinct world.

The collections for this opening are set to be shown on Friday, June 14th at 9 AM PT, with the team encouraging the community to “double-check your marketplace properties before the reveal” and that it may be safer to take them off from the marketplace until the collections are revealed. Unminted properties in collections will be locked 5 minutes before the reveal happens on Discord, in-game chat and the previously-linked article. At 9:30 AM PT unminted properties that are a part of the collections will be unlocked for users to mint.

In order to have guaranteed property minting in this city after collections are revealed, you’ll need the Bermuda Pass, which also gives a 15% chance for a property to be part of a collection. Of course, you still need UPX to do the minting. A sale of 1000 Passes took place on Thursday, June 6th at 9 AM PT for $4.99 each. As these Passes can be traded, anyone interested may still have a chance of getting one before the snapshot takes place on Friday, June 14th, at some time that is shortly after the collection reveal. Eligible holders will then have a mint deadline of Wednesday, June 19th, 9 AM PT, after which any unminted properties will go into public minting at “a surprise date and time.”

Neighborhood Bundles

Neighborhood Bundles are designed to give partners and large communities the option to buy entire neighborhoods in this Web3 metaverse. These bundles will be in extremely limited availability, and purchasing them will be done using ETH, “with unique discounts applied.” The official post states that the prices “are coupled with USD,” meaning the price of the bundle in ETH will likely change to stay in line with the fixed price set in USD.

When a bundle is bought, buyers can choose to mint all or some of the included properties. There is also the option to open all or some of the properties for sale, “with minting proceeds sent to the buyer’s account monthly.” Buyers can also choose a mixture of both minting and opening options.

This initiative, which is said to be “crafted with an eye towards our anticipated future growth, preparing Upland for the exciting developments ahead,” has already kicked off with the release of 3 Neighborhood Bundles last week: the Queensridge neighborhood in Las Vegas (994 properties for 6.99 ETH), the Wynwood Industrial District neighborhood in Miami (308 properties for 10.79 ETH) and the Treasure Island in San Francisco (851 properties for 19.56 ETH).